From the BBC online news
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Comparison of Lightkeeper Wages 1942 – 1956 with the Average Working Man of the Same Period.
In the photo on the left is a photocopy of the “Employee’s Record” (1942 – 1956) for Thomas Moran, lightkeeper at Barrett Rock lighthouse, an isolated station just outside Prince Rupert harbour, British Columbia, Canada.
Unfortunately his pay scale for his starting date in 1942 is missing. The first indication of his salary is 1 Jan. 1947, a maximum (max) amount of $1824.00 per annum.
In 1947 the average weekly wage for a male person working as a labourer in the manufacturing industry was $2933.00 per annum – about $1100.00 per annum more than a senior lighthouse keeper working in isolation for seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year! (see portion of the table below from the Historical Statistics of StatsCanada – full page in comma-separated values (CSV) format is available here.)1
From this wage he had to support his family and pay an assistant keeper (if one was required). He also had to pay a relief keeper if he wished to leave the station for holidays or medical problems, or required extra help during the summer.
Year Male salaried employees
Annual Weekly Hourly
1956 4,918 99.05 2.51
1955 4,636 93.50 2.36
1954 4,499 90.99 2.31
1953 4,327 86.43 2.19
1952 3,985 82.60 2.07
1951 3,852 77.55 1.94
1950 3,507 69.35 1.73
1949 3,317 65.37 1.60
1948 3,147 63.47 1.54
1947 2,933 60.21 1.46
1946 2,680 53.21 1.27
This inequality continued until just recently (August 2005) when the lighthouse keepers were granted a substantial 10.5% increase to bring them closer to an employee working in town. Click here to see an image copy stored on this website of the present wages for lighthouse keepers from the Collective Agreement with the Treasury Board (TB) of Canada. Click here for the actual TB website page.
Additional Employee Records of Thomas Moran
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It is amazing that these records still exist after the burning of all the files at Digby Island in the 1960s.
“Some labels still stood out on the charred, curling folders: Green Island, Lawyer Island, Boat Bluff, Cape St. James . . . all the rest of the northen lights. Half a century of human history was going up in smoke.”
“From Lights of the Inside Passage” by Donald Graham, Harbour Publishing
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1 Another very interesting website for comparing wages from earlier times to the present can be found here at Measuring Worth. Look on the left side of their page for more than one way of calculating this comparison – i.e. GDP, CPI, etc. Wages calculated in US dollars.
In this case, his wage today (2010 – last year that wage data is available) would have been $17,800.00 US dollars. A long way below the minimum wage!
One of the benefits of having a “glamorous” job like a policeman, pilot, or lighthouse keeper is the collection of memorabilia such as models, photos, key-chain hangers, and lapel pins. This post is dedicated to lapel pins.
In the photos below you can see some of the pins that were collected by myself and my son over many years. From the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) we have helicopters and ships (CCGS) and hovercraft as well as crests. We also worked in close co-ordination with Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and Coast Guard Radio. Continue reading Lighthouse Collections – Lapel Pins
The following extracts taken from early Victoria, British Columbia (BC) newspapers are credited to Leona Taylor for her excellent work in indexing the papers. Full information can be found here: “Index of Historical Victoria Newspapers“, 2007-09.
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Dominion Government Steamer Quadra returned yesterday from a short but useful cruise to Clayoquot Sound. Two additional buoys were placed in position as aids to navigation, one off Echatchet’s I, Templar Channel to mark the rock nearby in the centre of the fairway, and the other off the Southwest point of Meares I, to show the turn into Deception Channel. The old buoy off Stubbs Spit was replaced by a new one.
When in the Sound Captain Walbran carefully fixed the position of 4 uncharted rocks. Two of these are dangerous to navigation, one in the fairway of Browning Passage, with only 5′ of water over it at low water and the other, which dries at a very low tide, at the East end of Hecate Passage. Particulars of these rocks will be published by the Marine and Fisheries Department at an early date. Continue reading Lighthouse History – 19 (1902-05-13 to 1902-08-06)
The following story came to mind when a friend of mine from Victoria made a comment on this website.
The water on the Inside Passage called Queen Charlotte Strait is know for its enveloping fogs which cover all land and sea, sometimes for days at a a time.
In the early 1970s I was stationed at Pulteney Point Lighthouse – my first appointment to the lightstation service. What a delightful place it was, and the keepers, Walt and Joyce Tansky were the best to have for a person starting on the lights.
One summer’s day my friend Rich was visiting for a few days salmon fishing. I had a fifteen (16) foot (5 meter) canoe. I was very familiar with it, but Rich still had to learn. Continue reading Fishing in the Fog – Pulteney Point c. 1970s
– Dorothy Mawdsley (Harris) Harrop (daughter of first light keeper, George Alfred Harris, at Capilano 1913 – 1925) (with special thanks to Alfred Harrop, grandson of George Alfred Harris, for letting me post the text of the letter.)
[Father (George Alfred Harris)]. . . was given the First Narrows Light and Fog Station. I cannot remember but have a notion it was end of april 1915 when he took over. The light was first used May 17,1915 the day after my 17th birthday. The fog horn was started June 1, 1915.
It must have been rather hard him living there by himself. I do not know the dimensions of the lighthouse but it was full of engines. Two engines were the same and were there in case one broke down, then an air compressor which was linked with belts to pulleys from the engine to the wall and then up to a higher pulley and across to the compressor, hence by pipes to the fog horns. Continue reading Life at First Narrows (aka Capilano) c. 1913
This is a PDF copy of the Chance Diaphone Manual, which explains all the workings of the Diaphone Foghorn, and lists the many versions of the foghorn, their ranges, working pressures, sizes, etc. Click the link above to read or download the book.
Click the photo left for a PDF file. Click here for an ePub format or a Mobi format.
Author: Chance, James Frederick, 1856-1937
Subject: Chance, James Timmins, Sir, 1814-1902; Lighthouses
Publisher: London : Smith, Elder
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
Language: English
Call number: AGP-4436
ISBN: 1149446641, 9781149446645
Length: 190 pages
– Elizabeth Kate (Stannard) Smithman (Wife of Henry Herbert Smithman who was Senior Keeper at Sisters Island 1927 – 1929). Story donated by her grandson Allen Smithman.
The fog alarm has to be kept going when it is foggy or snowing a blizzard. This alarm is also used when it is smoky in summer from forest fires.
In the fog alarm building there are two big Fairbanks-Morse gas engines. It only takes one to run the fog alarm but when one breaks down the light keeper has to get the other one going. He then must fix the one that broke down in case the other fails, for the fog alarm must be kept going when it is foggy. Continue reading Sisters Island Fog Horn & Light c. 1927
– Elizabeth Kate (Stannard) Smithman (Wife of Henry Herbert Smithman who was Senior Keeper at Sisters Island 1927 – 1929)
Ballenas and Sisters Islands
I thought you might be interested to hear about “Life On a Lighthouse”.
We lived on them for about 5 ½ to 6 years and I guess we would have stayed and made a lifetime job of it but Bert [my husband] got very sick and had to be taken off to hospital where after a lingering illness he passed away.
Well some folks think it must be very lonesome life but there’s too much to do to get lonesome and besides, it’s a wonderful, interesting life.
We were on two different lights. The first one was the best as it was a bigger island and we could have a garden and there was lots of room for the children to play, however I took sick and as we thought lighthouse life did not suit me, Bert asked to be replaced by another light keeper.
We moved to Parksville, [Vancouver island, BC, Canada] where we had been getting our mail, etc.
Anyway I was no better (for awhile anyway) but after some time I improved but we had learned that it wasn’t being on a lighthouse that caused my sickness so we put in for another. Continue reading Life on a Lighthouse by Grandma Stannard c. 1927